2018–19 Minerva Punjab FC season

As of 16 October 2018

Minerva Punjab saw an exodus of top players after their I-League victory in the 2017 season. Perhaps the biggest departure that Minerva Punjab was that of Chencho Gyeltshen. The Bhutanese attacker was the stand-out performer for Minerva in 2017 and was subsequently sold to Bengaluru FC.^[5] His departure left a huge gap in the Minerva squad.

Following Chencho out of the door were Kiran Chemjong, Sukhdev Singh, Kamalpreet Singh, Bali Gagandeep, Kassim Aidara, Girik Khosla, Rakshit Dagar, and Abhishek Ambekar.

Kamalpreet Singh, Gagandeep, Aidara, and Rakshit Dagar all signed for Minerva's title rivals East Bengal F.C. Sukhdev Singh and Ambekar moved on to Mohun Bagan.^[6] Ahead of the 2018-19 I-League season, Minerva were left with a depleted squad.

On 6 July 2018 Minerva Punjab signed forward Yu Kuboki on a permanent transfer from Australian club Sydney Olympic FC. He had been in scintillating form for Sydney the previous season, scoring 11 goals in 22 matches as an attacking midfielder or a withdrawn striker.^[7]

In August 2018 Minerva signed three players including Nigerian forward Philip Njoku.^[8]

In September 2018 they signed former Ozone FC striking duo C. S. Sabeeth and Brazilian Robert De Souza.^[9] They also extended contracts with defender Akashdeep Singh and striker Akash Sangwan.^[10][11]

No.	Position	Player	Date	Ref
	FW	Akash Sangwan	6 September 2018	[10]
	DF	Akashdeep Singh	9 September 2018	[11]
	MF	Amandeep Singh	10 September 2018	[12]
	MF	Souvik Das	14 September 2018	[13]
	DF	Deepak Devrani	19 September 2018	[14]
	MF	William Opoku	21 September 2018	[15][16]
	GK	Arshdeep Singh	22 September 2018	[17]
	DF	Arshpreet Singh	23 September 2018	[18]
	GK	Bhaskar Roy	26 September 2018	[19]
	MF	Randeep Singh	1 October 2018	[20]
	FW	Rajan Negi	9 October 2018	[21]

No.	Position	Player	Previous club	Transfer fee	Date	Ref
10	FW	Yu Kuboki	Sydney Olympic FC	Free agent	6 July 2018	[7]
	FW	Sandeep Rajput	MPFC winter Camp	Free agent	30 July 2018	[22]
4	FW	Philip Njoku	FC Inter Turku	Free agent	7 August 2018	[8]
	MF	Liandala Fanai	Aizawl	Free agent	12 August 2018	[23]
7	FW	Hitova Ayemi	Fateh Hyderabad	Free agent	25 August 2018	[24]
9	FW	C. S. Sabeeth	Ozone F.C.	Free agent	2 September 2018	[25]
14	FW	Dilli Ram Sanyasi	Hindustan FC	Free agent	5 September 2018	[26]
	FW	Robert De Souza	Ozone FC	Free agent	7 September 2018	[9]
	DF	Mohamed Irshad	Gokulam Kerala	Free agent	8 September 2018	[27][28]
28	MF	Prabhjot Singh	unattached	Free agent	11 September 2018	[29]
50	DF	Aimable Nsabimana	APR FC	Free agent	13 September 2018	[30][31]
12	DF	Nikhil Pal	Chennai City	Free agent	16 September 2018	[32]
	MF	Akhil PM	FC Kerala	Free agent	26 September 2018	[33][34]
	FW	Atinder Mani	Real Kashmir	Free agent	19 October 2018	[35]
11	FW	Manandeep Singh	Mohun Bagan	Free agent	19 October 2018	[36]
	MF	Jagpreet Singh	unattached	Free agent	27 October 2018	[37]
22	GK	Nidhin Lal	Shillong Lajong	Free agent	27 October 2018	[38]
5	DF	Lancine Touré	Mohammedan	Free agent	27 October 2018	[39]
47	MF	Alex Kouame	unattached	Free agent	31 October 2018
6	MF	Bala Al Hassan Dahir	F.C. Kerala	Free agent	5 November 2018	[40]
18	FW	Donatus Edafe	ND Gorica	Free agent	8 November 2018	[41]
	FW	Moinuddin Khan	Mohun Bagan	Free agent	9 November 2018	[42]
	DF	Caicedo Rodriguez	Thinadhoo Sports	Free agent	27 November 2018	[43]
	MF	Juan Quero	Fuenlabrada	Free agent	27 January 2019
	FW	Cornelius Stewart	Maziya	Free agent	31 January 2019

No.	Position	Player	Outgoing club	Ref
27	DF	Abhishek Ambekar	Mohun Bagan	[44]
7	FW	Chencho Gyeltshen	Bengaluru	[44]
16	MF	Kassim Aidara	East Bengal	[44]
9	FW	Bali Gagandeep	East Bengal	[44]
40	GK	Rakshit Dagar	East Bengal	[44]
22	DF	Kamalpreet Singh	East Bengal	[44]
31	GK	Kiran Chemjong	T.C. Sports Club	[44]
3	DF	Sukhdev Singh	Mohun Bagan	[44]
10	FW	Moinuddin Khan	Mohun Bagan	[44]
11	MF	Girik Khosla	NorthEast United FC	[44]
13	MF	Bazie Armand	Mohammedan	[45]
24	DF	Guy Eric Dano	Rainbow AC	[46]
48	FW	Robert Dzouza	unattached
50	DF	Aimable Nsabimana	unattached
10	FW	Yu Kuboki	unattached
4	FW	Philip Njoku	unattached
6	MF	Bala Dahir	unattached
18	FW	Donatus Edafe	unattached

As of 28 February 2019^[47]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
22	GK	IND	Nidhin Lal
23	MF	IND	Jagpreet Singh
24	DF	IND	Thoiba Singh Moirangthem
25	DF	IND	Arshpreet Singh
26	DF	IND	Deepak Devrani
28	FW	IND	Prabhjot Singh
30	GK	IND	Arshdeep Singh
32	FW	IND	Luntinmang Haokip
33	MF	IND	Akhil Verma
38	FW	IND	Atinder Mani
40	DF	COL	Caicedo Rodriguez
42	MF	GHA	William Opoku
44	MF	CIV	Alexander Kouame
49	MF	IND	Amandeep Singh
50	FW	IND	Moinuddin Khan

As of 9 August 2018.

Position	Name
Technical director	Paul Munster
Head coach	Sachin Badadhe
Assistant coach	Vacant
Team manager	vacant
Physiotherapist	Karuna Kant Gupta

Minerva Punjab kicked off their pre-season preparations by participating in the 2018 Punjab State Super Football League from 26 August 2018.^[48] With 4 wins and 3 draws Minerva finished second in the league table.^[49] They beat league leader FC Punjab Police in the finals to win the 32nd Punjab State Super Football League title.^[50][51]

  Win  Draw  Loss

Notes

Minerva Punjab participated in the J&K Invitational Cup organized by Real Kashmir FC. It was a knock out tournament.^[55]

Notes

  Win  Draw  Loss  Void   Postponed

Shillong Lajong FC v Minerva Punjab FC

23 November 2018 5	Shillong Lajong FC	2–2	Minerva Punjab FC	Shillong, Meghalaya
17:00 IST	Kenstar Kharshong  23' Phrangki Buam 24' Allen Lyngdoh 43'  57'	Report	W. Asiedu 45+3' Souvik Das  49' Philip Njoku 75'	Stadium: JL Nehru Stadium, Shillong Attendance: 5,275 Referee: Pratik Mondal

Minerva Punjab FC v Indian Arrows

1 December 2018 6	Minerva Punjab FC	1–0	Indian Arrows	Panchkula, Haryana
14:00 IST	T.moirangthem  42' Philip Njoku 74' B.Dahir  80'	Report	Aniket Jadhav  87'	Stadium: Tau Devi Lal Stadium Attendance: 4,275 Referee: Priyobarta Singh

East Bengal v Minerva Punjab FC

4 December 2018 7	East Bengal	0–1	Minerva Punjab FC	Kolkata, West Bengal
17:00 IST	Jhonny Acosta  73'	Report	W. Asiedu 75'	Stadium: Salt Lake Stadium Attendance: 16,821 Referee: Crystal John

The AFC Champions League is the premier continental football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). As the champions of the I-League the previous season, Minerva Punjab FC earned a chance to qualify for the tournament. India did not have a direct-entry spot in the AFC Champions League and thus the champion team from India had to qualify for the tournament through the preliminary rounds. Minerva Punjab were put up against Saipa FC of Iran.

Saipa FC v Minerva Punjab FC

12 February 2019 (2019-02-12) PR 2	Saipa FC	v	Minerva Punjab FC
--:-- UTC+3:30

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		ABD	CFC	MIN	MMC
1	Abahani Limited Dhaka	6	4	1	1	12	5	+7	13	Inter-zone play-off semi-finals		—	3–2	2–2	5–0
2	Chennaiyin	6	3	2	1	9	6	+3	11			1–0	—	0–0	2–0
3	Minerva Punjab	6	0	5	1	6	7	−1	5			0–1	1–1	—	2–2
4	Manang Marshyangdi Club	6	0	2	4	5	14	−9	2			0–1	2–3	1–1	—

• 2018–19 in Indian football
• 2018–19 I-League